MASH CO-CREATOR WAS NOMINATED FOR 24 EMMYS.

Gene Reynolds, a child actor turned television hitmaker who helped create MASH and Lou Grant, distinguishing himself as an Emmy-winning director and producer with shows that tackled social issues such as war, nuclear proliferation and civil rights, died Feb. 3 in Burbank, Calif. at 96.

Reynolds was twice president of the Directors Guild of America in the 1990s and was credited with reaching out to younger filmmakers, pushing the industry to diversify its ranks and creating annual awards for female and minority film students.

Reynolds performed in Hollywood films from age 11, appearing as an extra in Our Gang comedies and specializing in playing the child version of leading men.

In the late 1930s, he portrayed a young Ricardo Cortez in The Californian, Tyrone Power in In Old Chicago, Robert Taylor in The Crowd Roars, Jimmy Stewart in Of Human Hearts and aviator Douglas “Wrong Way” Corrigan in The Flying Irishman.

That led to an interest in directing, with Reynolds developing a career as one of TV’S premier multi-hyphenates, a combination writer-director-producer who helped pioneer the dramedy with his irreverent humour and willingness to tackle weighty themes.

From the late 1950s he directed hundreds of episodes of television, including Leave It to Beaver, The Andy Griffith Show, My Three Sons and Hogan’s Heroes. He was also an executive producer of Room 222 in 1969 about a black history teacher.

The half-hour primetime sitcom featured a racially diverse cast and addressed issues of race, gender, religion and war, which Reynolds returned to in the darkly comic war series MASH and the drama Lou Grant, with Ed Asner as a crusty newspaper editor.

Reynolds was nominated for 24 Emmy Awards, two as a director for MASH, the series that remains his greatest legacy. Following a mobile Army surgical unit during the Korean War — with Vietnam as subtext — it shocked viewers with its mix of ribald humour and wartime brutality.

Airing from 1972 to 1983, it became one of the highest-rated television shows in U.S. history.

During the Second World War, Reynolds served in the Pacific aboard the destroyer-minesweeper Zane. His marriage to Bonnie Jones ended in divorce, and in 1979 he married Ann Sweeny. He is survived by Sweeny and their son.